In this contribution, the authors reflect on historical theology as theological discipline. The authors propose that historical theology be applied to different areas of research, namely prolegomena, history of the church, history of missions, history of theology, history of ecumenical theology or public theology and church polity. The point is made that historical theology, when properly structured and presented, could play a major role in enriching the theological and ecclesial conversation and in assisting the church in the process of reformation and transformation.

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Historical Theology: Content, methodology and relevance

The religiosity of the book of Song of Songs in context

Die impak van die postmodernisme op voorhuwelikse verhoudings : 'n pastorale studie

Yahwism after the Exile: Perspectives on Israelite Religion in the Persian Era: Papers Read at the First Meeting of the European Association for Biblical Studies, Utrecht, 6-9 August 2000, edited by Rainer Albertz and Bob Becking. Studies in Theology and Religion 5. Assen: Van Gorcum, 2003. Pp. xxi + 300. euro;67.50. ISBN 902323880X. This volume consists of papers read at the first meeting of the European Association for Biblical Studies in Utrecht (Netherlands) in August 2000. All papers are written in English with one exception-the essay by Rudiger Schmitt, which is in German-and most of them offer an important contribution to a better understanding of the Persian period and its significance for the formation of the Hebrew Bible. In the foreword, the editors (Rainer Albertz and Bob Becking) describe the Persian period as a "transit period" from the former Israelite and Judahite religions, which reveal multiple Yahwisms, to Judaism as it appears in the Hellenistic period. They also emphasize the difficulty of understanding the Judean situation during the Persian era, since we have no documents from the Persian administration that are related directly to the province of Yehud. Hence, biblical sources remain important, even if their date and intention are not easy to identify; at times, some evidence from inscriptions and archaeology may also shed some light on the period. Albertz and Becking conclude with a brief presentation of each paper. The essays are ordered alphabetically. Instead of following this order, however, this review will briefly discuss the articles according to their topics. The first essay, by Rainer Albertz ("The Thwarted Restoration," pp. 1-17), is a good introduction to the whole volume. Albertz argues that the term "restoration," often used by biblical scholars to describe the Persian period, is not actually adequate. Indeed, the Persian period does not witness a return to preexilic institutions but a new political and ideological structure, which Albertz describes as follows: on the top of the province of Yehud is a governor (who may be either Persian or Jew); under him stand two councils of Jewish self-administration, the "congregation of the priests" and the "council of elders." Beneath those councils, Albert identifies a third institution, the "assembly [qahal] of the people," which had quite restricted powers compared to the councils of priestly and lay leaders. Furthermore, these two councils had the same interest as the Persian government, namely, to prevent the emergence of monarchic or messianic movements in Yehud. The view of Antje Labahn ("Antitheocratic Tendencies in Chronicles," pp. 115-35) partially contradicts Albertz's analysis, since Labahn argues for an important role of the Levites during the Persian period. Labahn argues that the Levites, which she identifies as the probable authors of Chronicles, established themselves as a third pressure group beneath the priestly and political leadership. The Levites should then be conceived of as a "multi-functional group in the Second Temple period" (p. 129). They recognized the privileges of priests in the sacrificial cult, but this topic only plays a limited role in Chronicles. Much more attention is given to the Levites, who apparently functioned as administrators and were influential in almost all areas of the Judean society. Yet, if one follows Labahn's interpretation of Chronicles, the Levites agreed with the other leading groups in rejecting monarchical ideology. Some essays emphasize the ideological and institutional changes that took place in Yehud under the Achaemenids. David Vanderhooft ("New Evidence Pertaining to the Transition from Neo-Babylonian to Achaemenid Administration in Palestine," pp. 219-35) discusses nonbiblical evidence for Babylonian and Persian administration in Judea. Tablets recently published by the French scholars Francis Joannes and Andre Lemaire indicate the existence of a town in Mesopotamia called Al-Yahudu. …

Yahwism after the Exile: Perspectives on Israelite Religion in the Persian Era: Papers Read at the First Meeting of the European Association for Biblical Studies, Utrecht, 6-9 August 2000

TRS are two interconnected and mutually dependent fields of academic inquiry, which belong to the larger and more encompassing domain of general humanities. Given this interconnectivity, reciprocity, and interdependability as integrative part of the humanities, TRS find themselves in the same position of being constantly evaluated from various perspectives, including the particularly measurable aspect of research outputs. While research outputs can be measured rather easily in the sense that they are tangible and readable in a published format, the way they are actually evaluated and given credit for regarding their content is a totally different matter and a whole lot more complex a problem. This chapter is an attempt to demonstrate that research productions in the field of TRS should be evaluated not only against other completely different fields, such as natural sciences, but also against closer and more related domains from the very corpus of the Humanities. It is suggested, therefore, that three distinct features should be taken into account for a proper and fair assessment of research outputs in TRS: research productivity, citations, and academic reputation. These, in turn, must be always complemented by a set of necessarily subsequent measures such as an increased productivity reward, high citations reward, high impact journals must be rewarded, and international to be increased. The proposed ranking indicators and their rewarding measures are going to be discussed and exemplified with specific reference to the research performance of the FT within the UP, SA.

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Rethinking research impact by Theology and Religious Studies with references to the Faculty of Theology at the University of Pretoria

1 & 2 Chronicles – a discourse of power This study compares Chronicles with its source documents. It is obvious that the authors of Chronicles omitted certain parts of the source documents on the other hand on the other emphasized certain aspects with a specific purpose. The result is that the Southern kingdom receives a positive evaluation, while the Northern kingdom is described in a negative light. David is presented as the ideal king and in contrast to Exodus is credited as the founder of the religious cult. The cult in Jerusalem is legitimized and proclaimed as the only true religion. In so doing the books of Chronicles without a doubt secured and legitimized the position and actions of the temple personnel. As long as the temple existed it functioned as a discourse of power within this community. As a discourse of power, it set boundaries and excluded different groups that were traditionally part of the people of YHWH. The destruction of the temple though, disempowered this text and opened up the way for it to become part of the Hebrew canon.

https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/24929/00thesis.pdf?sequence=1

1 & 2 Kronieke as 'n magsteks

An inquiry into the problem of theological relevance, posed by the metaphors in the Song of Songs. Of the six basic scholarly approaches to the Song of Songs, the literary approach is today most widely accepted. This approach still however does not give all the answers to  the problem of an evasive theological relevance, posed by the metaphors in the Song of Songs. This article argues that a certain perspective on metaphors will open up new ways of understanding the  Song. When this perspective is coalesced with narratology, results are reached that will certainly enhance this celebrated poem.

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A.P.B. Breytenbach

Papers

1 & 2 Kronieke as 'n magsteks

n Ondersoek na die teologiese relevansie van die metaforiese spreke in Hooglied